The Continuing Path of Distortion

Author:

Becker George1

Affiliation:

1. Department of Sociology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, USA,

Abstract

Things are not always as they seem. A cursory examination of a table of statistics cited in the Weber thesis appears to reveal striking differences in the educational ‘preferences’ of Catholics and Protestants. Careful scrutiny, however, on a number of grounds, especially in light of the importance that Weber attaches to these statistics in the articulation of his thesis, reveals that not only are the statistics seriously compromised by errors and omissions, but they lead to an evolving state of confusion engendered by scholars who, while engaged in the concealment or ostensible correction of these flaws by often dubious means, have published changed and conflicting versions of Weber’s statistics. By examining two recently published new English translations of the Weber thesis, this study resolves and clarifies some of the uncertainties surrounding the proper interpretation of these statistics within the context of Weber ’s theoretical argument and the socio-political climate in which they were produced. The reader is invited to explore how reverential bias in classical scholarship actually emerges.

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Subject

Sociology and Political Science

Reference54 articles.

1. Aldenhoff, R. ( 1987) ‘Max Weber and the Evangelical - Social Congress’ , in W. J. Mommsen and G. Roth (eds) Max Weber and his Contemporaries , pp. 193-202. London: Allen & Unwin.

2. Baehr, P. and Wells, G.C. ( 2002) ‘Introduction’, in Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the ‘Spirit’ of Capitalism and Other Writings, pp. IX-XXXII. New York: Penguin Books.

3. Replication and Reanalysis of Offenbacher's School Enrollment Study: Implications for the Weber and Merton Theses

4. Educational "Preference" of German Protestants and Catholics: The Politics behind Educational Specialization

5. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

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